Apple CEO Tim Cook calls for stronger ties with China

Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook met government officials in Beijing on Monday as the company looks to expand in the region.

Cook, who took over from recently deceased co-founder Steve Jobs, is on his first trip to China since becoming Apple’s CEO in August. Apple did not elaborate on the meetings.

However CNet , quoting a Chinese daily, said Cook is reported to have said that China had become important to Apple’s research and development and the supply of its products.

The report added that Beijing mayor Guo Jinlong, who met Cook on Monday afternoon, said he hoped Apple and Beijing could take further steps to deepen the company’s cooperation with the capital. Beijing’s top schools, rich talent, and market potential, makes the city ideal to develop the IT industry, he said.

The CEO is no stranger to China, the world’s largest mobile market and a key growth area for the makers of the iPhone and iPad. As the former chief operating officer, he helped set up a sprawling supply chain centered on Asia, with a heavy presence in China.

Cook has said previously that Apple has merely scratched the surface in China and is looking to expand. It now has only five stores in the country from where it sells iPhones and other products, although it does sell through more than a hundred resellers.

Apple has deals in place with China Telecom and Unicom to sell its iPhone in the country, and other major carriers - such as China Mobile - are looking to clinch deals with the California company.

Cook’s visit also comes as the company wages a legal battle with a local company over the iPad trademark. The long-running dispute with Proview - a bankrupt technology company - over the ownership of the trademark is now making its way through the court system in China.

With inputs from Reuters